Cooray finishes 55th as Stephen strikes gold

Dinesh Weerawansa - Reporting From England

Sri Lanka's Anuradha Indrajith Cooray secured 55th place in the men's marathon of the XXXth Olympic Games worked off in the British capital here today. His timing of two hours, 20 minutes and 41 seconds was much slower than his career best mark of 2:13.08. Stephen Kiprotich won the race to gave Uganda its second gold medal in Olympic Games, four decades after the initial feat.

Cooray ran the first five km comparatively slow but made a reasonably well progress thereafter. He was placed 84th after the first 5km in 16 minutes and one second, then advanced four places ahead to become 80th at the 15km mark in 48 minutes and 15 seconds, 3.17 behind the leader at that point.

By the halfway mark, he was placed 78th in one hour, eight minutes and 26 seconds. Kenya's Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich was the first to reach the halfway mark in 1:03.15 while Cooray passed the same point five minutes and 11 seconds after him. But Wilson eventually settled for the bronze in 2:09.37.

After the first 25km, Cooray was placed 72nd and then advanced to 67th, 64th and 56th places by 30km, 35km and 40km marks respectively.

Overall, Cooray advanced from 84th place after the first five km to 55th place at the finish line. When Cooray made his Olympic debut eight years ago, he was placed 30th with a time of 2:19.25 at Athens 2004 - more than a minute better than his performance today.

Speaking to media after the race, the 34-year-old former South Asian Games gold medallist said that the weather conditions prevented most runners from their normal run. “The weather was not the ideal and it affected all of us. I did my level best but that was the best what I could do under such conditions,” Cooray said.

“But I am glad that I could earn a place to run in Olympics once more, purely on merit. It is not easy to gain Olympic qualification and I did that eight years after first running in an Olympic marathon,” he added.

Stephen Kiprotich returned a timing of 2:08.01 to win the gold medal. He overcame the strong Kenyan challenge and burst past Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang around the 38km mark to leave his two rivals trailing and claim only Uganda's second ever Olympic gold in Athletics.

Kiprotich followed in the footsteps of his compatriot John Akii-Bua, who was 400m Hurdles champion 40 years ago

But the 23-year-old Ugandan was never in the lead until he reached the 40km mark and since then, maintained that command in the first batch of runners. By the halfway mark, he was placed only sixth in 1:03.32.

It was a matter of 26 seconds which separated the winner and the silver medallist. Settling for the second place in 2:08.27 was Kenyan Abel Kirui, who was in the lead until the 35km. But once he lost the grip with less than eight km to the finish, he was never be able to go pass Stephen.

There were 105 leading long distance runners who came under the starter's orders at The Mall, an iconic location in central London and a popular backdrop for formal ceremonies and major sporting events. But only 88 reached the finish, which too was at the same location.

Coory's coach Nick Taylor, Sri Lanka's Sports Medicine Unit Head Prof. Arjuna de Silva and Sri Lanka rifle shooter (who is also Cooray's room mate at the Athletes’ Village) manned the three feeding points to take care of Sri Lanka's veteran long distance runner. AASL Secretary Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando monitored the progress of the race from The Mall, expecting early arrival of Cooray at the finish.

Meanwhile, Russia has the most fruitful day in the 204-Games last night with a rich haul of golds in athletic competition alone.

In the athletic finals worked off under lights at Olympic Stadium last night, Russia accounted for four gold medals, two silver and two bronze, making it a total of eight medals.

Defending champions Germany retained the Olympic Games men's hockey crown after an exciting final.

Jan Philipp Rabente was the unlikely hero as he scored twice to help Germany to a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands.

The 25-year-old struck in either half to make it a hat-trick of successive gold medals for coach Markus Weise, who also coached Germany's women to victory in 2004 and was in charge of the men at Beijing 2008.

Rabente, who had scored only six times in 77 internationals before the final, produced a brilliant first just before half-time and, after penalty corner specialist Mink van der Weerden had equalised after the break, he deflected in a second five minutes from the end. Earlier in the day, Australia claimed the bronze medal with a 3-1 win over host nation Great Britain.

LONDON, Sunday.